Following Jesus Son of God …

Do I believe in a gospel that allows me to believe the worst about myself?

That’s one of the most important questions I believe you can ask yourself.

It seems to me that the gospel many people believe falls short of completely dealing with the darkness they sense is inside.  Just as we sometimes think “If they knew I had done this when I was younger, they would reject me.”  “If they knew what I was really like they would no longer be my friend.”

And with friends this may very well be true.  People learn more about us and they distance themselves from us.

But not God, not if we embrace what Christ has done at the cross, not if we believe what he tells us is the good news.  God is more aware of the darkness inside each of us than we are ourselves.  He knows all about our anger issues, our jealousies, our sexual fantasies, our insincerity in service, our bitterness.  He knows more about you and me than we know about ourselves.

But the gospel – the good news – that Jesus Christ Son of God brought, the way of eternal life he offers, the way to God as described in his Holy Book, covers it all.  The deepest darkest sin of each of us, covered by the shed blood of the perfect One.

God knew what it would take to redeem you and me.  This is why Jesus Son of God was sent on his Earth mission.  Nothing else could satisfy the requirements to completely deal with the darkness inside each of us.  Nothing else could wipe the slate clean and allow God to look at us as pleasantly as he looks at his Son.

The enemy will pound you, friend, with all your inadequacies and failures.  The dark forces will dredge the worst of you from the hidden places of your heart and accuse you for the pitiful wretch you are. Twisting and turning the facts to rob you of any true hope, head blows that they hope will paralyze you in discouragement.

You need a helmet to protect you.

And God provides one from his “spiritual armor room,” the helmet of salvation.

Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6.17).

The enemy cannot bring anything from the darkness of your life that God doesn’t already know about and which is not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ if you have believed in him for the forgiveness of sins and received his gift of eternal life.

You and I need to know the gospel we believe, the beautiful, powerful gift of life that God gives us freely through Christ.

To continue forward in our pursuit of God and his holiness, we need a gospel that allows us to face the darkness and still see the salvation of God.

So how do we bow before God, humble ourselves before him?

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5.5b-7).

Very often our opportunity to bow before God comes as we deal with other Christians, other people in general, but Christians specifically.

This morning I have been in prayer about a situation that has me upset with what I perceive as other people’s self-centeredness and indifference.  Several options are available where I could choose to fight the humans, get the battle down to flesh and blood, stand up for my rights, justify my cause.  If nothing else, point out their bad form.

Or I can really treasure a moment to listen to God and instead of putting on warrior’s garb, I can clothe myself in humility.  I know. . .how spiritual I am.  And in this instant I am.  So encouraging this morning that God has spoken, and I have listened.

It really is a better place to be, folks.

People talk about humbling themselves before God, but beside the words, beside the abstract 1-2-3’s of good Christian living, they don’t understand that humbling ourselves before God (verse 6) so very often means humbling ourselves before our brothers and sisters in Christ (verse 5).

“Stand right over here.”
You have been in this situation.  You can’t see something unless you are standing in just the right spot.  Your friend says, “Here, stand right here and look over there.”

And that is what God does through his words.  He is not saying only pry the meaning from the text but live it.  Let it move you to a place where God wants you to be.  And there is a very refreshing fountain to drink from if we stand where God wants us to. Under this fountain we taste the goodness and grace of God, we soak in his strength and perspective, his “all things work together for good” statements sink deeply into our hearts.

It’s a great thing to believe God when it counts.

My grandson, still a toddler, had picked this line up –  “What are we gonna’ do now?” Something bad, something troubling, another emergency. . .What are we going to do now?

And that thought over the last two days has been turning into my latest song, What Are We Going to Do Now?  And Psalm 46 came to mind.

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

Psalm 46.1-3

So how does that connect to Chicken Little?

Many (maybe most) of us are familiar with the story of Chicken Little or The Sky Is Falling.  I have included the following from Wikipedia to refresh our memory.

The Sky Is Falling, better known as Chicken Licken, Henny Penny or Chicken Little is an old fable about a chicken (or a hare in early versions) who believes the sky is falling. The phrase, “The sky is falling,” has passed into the English language as a common idiom indicating a hysterical or mistaken belief that disaster is imminent.

There are many versions of the story, but the basic premise is that a chicken eats lunch one day, and believes the sky is falling down because an acorn falls on her head. She decides to tell the King, and on her journey meets other animals who join her in the quest. In most retellings, the animals all have rhyming names such as Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey. Finally, they come across Foxy Loxy, a fox who offers the chicken and her friends his help.

(Credit:  The Sky Is Falling (fable) from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

HERE IS THE CONNECTION:  Psalm 46 is the anti-Chicken Little promise from God, the silver bullet answer for What are we going to do if the sky is falling?  What am I going to do if my world threatens to fall apart?

In the story, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Cocky Lockey and Goosey Loosey all became caught up in a swirling current of fear and hysteria that began with an acorn falling on Chicken Little’s head.

SEE: Chicken Little Story Link

It was just an acorn falling, but they were hysterical, mistakenly believing that disaster was imminent.

In Psalm 46 the Sons of Korah, generous with their hyperbole, say “So what, even if the earth shakes and changes, even if the mountains fall deep into the sea, even if the sky is falling, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our trouble.”

If then in the worst case scenario in which the earth gives way from beneath us and mountains are falling, the ocean is writhing in fear and the mountains tremble, and God is there, strong for us, then what about when our personal “worlds” implode or explode?  Can we still believe God?

He really is what he says he is and more, but we don’t learn the more until we trust him even when it seems the sky is falling.  The overwhelming, praise the Lord, hallelujah, God is great, safety and protection of God is not truly known until it is tested and tasted.  Intellectual assent gives a mere hint of God’s tremendous protective care. Believing God during the storm replaces that courteous appreciation with resounding worship and praise.

I don’t think I am alone in sometimes allowing fear of the plunging economy or fear of losing someone I love pounce on me and start to pound me.  You know. . .the “gut shots” in life, the “What if’s” that try to rip us apart.  What if I lose my job?  What if her health fails?  What if he doesn’t change the course of his life?  What if this person rejects me?

It is because God is God that, in the midst of fear, I can choose to not be afraid, not because I am so brave or spiritual or strong.  I defeat fear by firmly choosing to believe what God says above the sound of panic.

And I honor him in choosing his words of truth over the hysteria.  I honor him in listening to his voice above the jarring, discordant, dissonance sounds of this world.  Forget it, Chicken Little and Henny Penny.  I’m not buying what you’re selling, Cockey Lockey or Goosey Loosey.

God is who he is or he isn’t.  Which is it?  And if he is who he says he is, and he is, then let the earth shake, let the mountains tremble, let the ocean foam, I will not be afraid.

I will run.  I will run, run, run to God my refuge.

The earth will shake again. . .

Trying some different things with audio and video; coincides with work on our Easter program.

Click link for audio: dave reading Matthew 27.33-54

We need to feel the cold at times.

I often don’t remember what I dream about and I don’t really remember much of my dream last night except it was somewhat foreboding, feeling like the time the Bible calls the tribulation.  The coldness of the world, the insecurity and uncertainty, and then for a follower of Jesus Christ especially, the danger.

So why would that be good?

Because when we are are warm and snuggly in our faith, we aren’t much prone to step outside to rescue those still lost, still trembling in the cold, still heartbroken.  We’ve got to feel the pain to be ready to share the healing of Christ.

Christ is our example.  He embraced death to defeat death and provide rescue for us.  He immersed himself in life on this Earth so he could become a merciful and faithful ambassador between God and man.

He felt the cold wind and as he stayed focused on the purpose of God, the cold wind produced a merciful High Priest, a go-between, a tailor-made Savior for the humans who walk this Earth.

And, now, as Christians, we need to follow.  We need to feel the cold and remember the fear, so we can bring the message of Christ with mercy and faith.

(Hebrews 2:14 MSG)  Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death

(Hebrews 2:15 MSG)  and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.

(Hebrews 2:16 MSG)  It’s obvious, of course, that he didn’t go to all this trouble for angels. It was for people like us, children of Abraham.

(Hebrews 2:17 MSG)  That’s why he had to enter into every detail of human life. Then, when he came before God as high priest to get rid of the people’s sins,

(Hebrews 2:18 MSG)  he would have already experienced it all himself–all the pain, all the testing–and would be able to help where help was needed.

Who do you bow before?

Ezra 9:7 (ESV)  From the days of our fathers to this day we have been in great guilt. And for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been given into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plundering, and to utter shame, as it is today.

Whose hand will we be under?

Someone will rule over us.  We choose whether it is God or the “kings” of the land.

Our “kings” are often different, our peer groups, family members, religious assembly, co-workers. . .

But we can be free no matter our social or political environment if we bow before the right Person.

Sometimes we march forward, sometimes we run, sometimes we stumble.

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64

I was listening to WILL our local NPR station one day and they were interviewing someone discussing Felix Mendelssohn and his struggle in writing this concerto.  The account given was that he felt as if he were “fumbling” along.  They went on to discuss how insecure and unsure he was.

The result of his fumbling, insecurity and unsureness?  One of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time.

Sometimes our stumbling produces tremendous fruit.  I guess I am telling myself that.  I have been working on a new song and was very excited about it.  And got some tracks down last night and. . .how can I put it?  It was a snoozer.

Back to the drawing board.

But so many things in life.  In sports they talk about the guys who know how to “grind it out.”  Sometimes we grind; sometimes we are sky high on inspiration and that can yield great work, but sometimes we have to grind.  We stumble, we’re unsure, even insecure and we keep going.

I hope God is listening to how spiritual I am sounding right now and blesses my continued work on this song for having such a spiritual attitude.  🙂   (Yes, I am laughing at myself at the moment.)

When I am weak, then I am strong.  Seems like I have heard that somewhere?  Hmmm. . .

(2 Corinthians 12:9-10 BBE)  And he said to me, My grace is enough for you, for my power is made complete in what is feeble. Most gladly, then, will I take pride in my feeble body, so that the power of Christ may be on me.  (10)  So I take pleasure in being feeble, in unkind words, in needs, in cruel attacks, in troubles, on account of Christ: for when I am feeble, then am I strong.